Today the two journalists that were held by North Korea for inadvertently sauntering into the hostile nation, return home. This story has been all over the news this morning.  I guess a couple of American’s got lost while hiking in Northern Iraq and got picked up by some Iranian border police. I am fond of hiking. I often went hiking in the hills sorounding my childhood home in Jamaica. I would bring a long a Machette and a sling shot and go for a walk to see what I could see. I currently live in Ontario and I have been hiking in…kinda Northern Ontario. I remember hearing a warning of the possibility bears could be in the area we were planning to go hiking. This made me uneasy at the time. Now I am not sure how popular it is to go hiking in northern Iraq. I have an uncle that has done his fair share of hiking through the Mid East nation. He has visited that country on three separate occasions in the last few years and supprisingly has little in the way of fun stories to tell. I am sure he has some he just chooses not to talk about them much.  I think if I were to HAVE TO go hiking in such a place I would like the company of my uncle and his friends.  The lesson I have learned from the recent stories of people “hiking” too close to war torn countries’ borders? Dont’ hike near war torn countries’ borders. If you must then go prepared. Bring along some basic nessesities so that in the event something unexpected should happen, you are prepared. Bring a map, some water and depending on where you are headed, maybe even some Jimmy Hats. All these stories are giving pointless nature walking a bad name in my opinion. As the title suggests (or cleary indicates) I like hiking too. I hope people will stop using hiking as an excuse to cover their real intentions. Keep Hiking Pure!